‘Rejoice! Your wombs will not beget slaves!’ Marronnage as Reproductive Justice in Colonial Haiti

Abstract

This paper explores the possible existence of organic reproductive justice actions among enslaved mothers and pregnant women in colonial Haiti (Saint Domingue) with specific focus on how marronnageescape from slavery-provided them opportunities to exert power over their lives, bodies and biological reproduction. Reproductive justice is defined as the complete well-being of women and girls, based on their human right to decide when and how to have-or not have-children, and to parent existing children in safe and sustainable communities. The conditions of enslavement in Haiti were particularly detrimental to women's control over their fertility and overall reproductive health as birth rates remained so low that the enslaved population could not reproduce itself; however, findings from an underutilized archival roster containing demographic information on the only formally recognized community of maroons from colonial Haiti, the Maniel, indicate that the child-woman ratio among fugitive women was over twice as high as their counterparts who remained enslaved on plantations. Subversive reading of runaway slave advertisements also suggests that choosing to abscond was a rare but effective mechanism for women to achieve reproductive justice by exercising agency over their lives and protecting their childbearing capabilities. By highlighting motherhood during a state of fugitivity in one of the most economically prosperous slave societies in modern history, this paper can help establish historical precedent for contemporary reproductive justice claims. Moreover, maroon mothers' organic acts of reproductive justice have important implications for the study of how black women resist structures of racial capitalism that negatively impact their reproductive health and other areas of their lives.

Birthing hostages: Haitian women's stories of maternal medicine, debt, and hospital detention

“…Hospital detention is embedded in a multitude of neglectful and coercive medical practices that Black Haitian women face in health systems, and that Black women disproportionately face around the globe (Davis, 2019; Oparah with Black Women Birthing Justice, 2015). In particular, Black women have historically faced policies that sought to target and control their reproductive capacities according to the whims of capital (Davis, 2023; Eddins, 2020; Vergès, 2018). The reproductive justice (RJ) framework looks beyond birthing alone to highlight reproductive justice as holistic and intersectional, entailing the freedom to live, choose to have children (or not) and raise those children free from harassment in safe environments (Ross, 2006).…”

“There Is No Winning”

“…Women are disproportionately and uniquely impacted by the violence of debt (Appel 2019;Bhaskaran 2016;Jones-Rogers 2019). The literature describes sexual violence against women (Armstrong et al, 2018;Eddins 2020;Jones-Rogers 2019;Liu and Keane, 2021); and, women routinely experience various forms of abuse and exploitation through their responsibilities as caregivers and low-wage laborers (Cavallero and Gago, 2021). During slavery, White enslavers in Haiti and the United States exploited Black women's fertility and used sexual violence to reproduce their labor force and expand their own wealth (Eddins 2020;Jones-Rogers 2019).…”

“…The literature describes sexual violence against women (Armstrong et al, 2018;Eddins 2020;Jones-Rogers 2019;Liu and Keane, 2021); and, women routinely experience various forms of abuse and exploitation through their responsibilities as caregivers and low-wage laborers (Cavallero and Gago, 2021). During slavery, White enslavers in Haiti and the United States exploited Black women's fertility and used sexual violence to reproduce their labor force and expand their own wealth (Eddins 2020;Jones-Rogers 2019). Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers (2019) describes how White slave-owning women participated in this violence by using Black women to care for and nurse their babies, respond to the sexual desires of their husbands and sons, and settle family debts.…”

The social movement for reproductive justice: Emergence, intersectional strategies, and theory building

“…Scholars have traced both organic and organized resistance for reproductive justice back to the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Eddins theorizes marroonage (escape from slavery) as both a liminal space between enslavement and freedom and an organic act of reproductive justice resistance (2020). In an examination of marronnage in colonial Haiti (Saint Domingue), Eddins notes that the child‐woman ratio for the Maniel maroons of the Baoruco mountains, the best‐known settlement of fugitives from colonial Saint Domingue, was more than double that of enslaved women on nearby coffee and indigo plantations and over twice as high for women on sugar plantations from the 1770–1791 (2020, p. 566).…”

“…Thus, while dangerous, Eddins notes that “for those who successfully escaped and resettled in a self‐liberated community, marronnage was effective for exercising their own version of reproductive justice. By escaping slavery, women exerted agency over their lives and those of their children, while also protecting their right to live and rear children in safer circumstances than Saint Domingue’s plantations” (2020, p. 576). Thus, these women exercised their rights to have children and care for families on their own terms, tenets fundamental to bodily autonomy and reproductive justice.…”